308 
Having  made  a study  of  the  material  Dr.  SllEKMAN  declared  that 
a good  quality  was  found  by  him,  but  the  customs  officials  not  be- 
ing  judges  of  Gutta-percha,  were  forced  to  accept  the  valuations 
made  by  the  Chinese,  with  the  result  that  the  exports  yield  less  than 
the  proper  amount  of  revenue.  The  natives,  it  is  asserted  are  also 
cheated  by  the  traders,  both  in  regard  to  the  quality  of  their  pro- 
duce and  in  the  weights. 
As  a result  of  Dr.  Shermans’  report,  the  secretary  of  the  interior 
of  the  Philippines,  Dr.  Dean  C.  WORCESTER,  in  whose  depart- 
ment the  forestry  bureau  is  placed  asserts  that  at  the  present  rate 
of  destruction  there  will  be  no  Gutta-percha  trees  standing  four 
years  h nee.”  He  is  inclined  therefore  in  view  of  the  evident  use- 
lessness of  the  ordinary  methods  for  protection  of  the  trees,  to 
recommend  the  establishment  of  a Government  monopoly  of  Gutta- 
percha. Exportation,  except  by  the  Governmet,  could  be  prohibited, 
and  such  prohibition  could  be  made  fairly  effective.  Government 
buyers  could  be  located  at  suitable  points.  The  Government  could 
well  afford  to  pay  a price  considerably  higher  than  that  now  pre- 
vailing for  the  Philippine  product,  thereby  avoiding  ill  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  gatherers,  and  by  limiting  the  amount  which  it  purchased 
could  greatly  retard  the  present  rapid  destruction  of  the  trees.  The 
Government  buyers  would  necessarily  come  into  closer  contact  with 
the  collectors,  and  something  might  eventually  be  done  in  the  way 
of  introducing  proper  methods  of  extraction  in  place  of  the  present 
destructive  processes.  At  all  events  the  establishment  of  suitable 
extraction  plants  would  make  it  possible  to  utilise  the  large  amount 
of  Gutta-percha  which  is  now  left  in  the  bark  of  trees  that  have 
been  felled  and  ringed.  By  the  way,  Dr.  WORCESTER  says  that  a 
method  has  been  worked  out  in  the  Government  chemical  labora- 
tory for  the  extraction  from  the  Philippine  product  of  a chemically 
pure  gutta  equal  in  every  way  to  the  best  heretofore  put  upon  the 
Singapore  market,  the  purifying  process  involving  the  loss  of  about 
50  per  cent,  of  the  mass. 
Dr.  Sherman  also  investigated  the  number  of  rubber  resources. 
No  rubber  was  found  in  Mindanao,  but  in  the  Sulu  islands  he  saw  an 
abundance  of  large  rubber  vines,  or  creepers,  from  which  rubber  was 
extracting  by  cutting  them  so  freely  that  they  soon  died.  Samples 
which  he  secured  he  was  told  at  Jolo,  would  bring  at  Singapore  a 
price  equal  from  32  to  40  cents.,  gold,  a pound.  It  appears  that 
during  190 1 -2,  in  addition  to  Gutta-percha,  there  were  exports  of 
India-rubber  from  the  Philippines  on  which  duties  were  paid, 
amounting  to  282,996  lbs. 
The  India  Rubber  World,  Angasl,/poj. 
HORTICULTUR  AL  NOTES. 
Dendrobiuni  taurimnn  var  album. 
A very  pretty  form  of  this  plant  was  presented  ’ to  the  Botanic 
Gardens  by  Mr.  Pereira,  d'hc  stem  bore  three  spikes  of  which 
